When most think of a mainstream or entry-level smartphone, we picture some cheap junk with a small low-res screen, crappy camera, and an outdated version of Android.

Now imagine a smartphone running Android 4.0 with a 4.3 inch qHD display, 5 MP rear camera + VGA front camera, and a dual-core Tegra 2 processor. Obviously the specs don’t match up with the upcoming high-end devices, but what if I told you such a phone could be purchased for around $150, without a contract.

Today Chinese handset manufacturer ZTE announced the Mimosa X. It features all the specs mentioned above along with NVIDIA’s Icera 450 HSPA+ modem. NVIDIA just acquired Icera last year and this is the first Android device to feature their technology.

“The ZTE Mimosa X is exciting for a few reasons,” said Michael Rayfield, General Manager of the Mobile business at NVIDIA. “The Mimosa X marks the first time NVIDIA technology powers all the major processors in a single smartphone, and also the first time a premium mobile computing experience is coming to the mainstream smartphone market.”

ZTE said the Mimosa X will launch around Q2, but no carrier partners were announced. The final price still remains a mystery, but NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang hinted at it during a recent earnings call. When asked about growth opportunities for 2012, Jen-Hsun mentioned that Tegra 2 was a good fit for mainstream phones.

Jen-Husn said, “The third growth opportunity is the 999 or what some people call 1000RMB phone. And this is an affordable, very affordable smartphone with dual-core capability and the way that they describe it, the way the marketplace internalized it is it’s a phone that has the capability of an iPhone 4 but is extremely affordable.”

The “1000RMB” term stands for 1000 Chinese Yuan, which is around $159 with the current conversion rates.

In today’s pre-paid market it is possible to find Android phones priced below $199, but I wouldn’t recommend them to any of my friends. If ZTE can deliver the Mimosa X at that sub-$199 price range off contract, then I think we will see them move a lot of units. Heck at that price, we could see it on one of the big carriers for free on contract.

Overall, the Mimosa X looks like a solid effort from ZTE. Hopefully more details will be revealed next week at Mobile World Congress. ZTE just showed off a Tegra 3 tablet at CES, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they also unveil a Tegra 3 smartphone.

Taylor is the founder of Android and Me. He resides in Dallas and carries the Samsung Galaxy S 4 and HTC One as his daily devices. Ask him a question on Twitter or Google+ and he is likely to respond. | Ethics statement

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Very cool for some markets. I don’t think that market is the US however.

Even free on contract is nothing new a phone like this. The Atrix was basically free on contract after a few months, and this phone seems pretty equivalent. However, the off contract price is much better than the $400 for the Atrix.

You are wrong about the demand for a low price non-contract phone. I currently have a Virgin Mobile LG Optimus V, purchased $150 off contract. I am looking for a better off-contract phone, and the $300 Motoroloa Triumph is not enough of an improvement to warrant $300. If this ZTE phone comes to any non-contract player in the US, and its build quality is equivalent to the LG Optimus, I will be buying it.

I have a non-contract phone because I make a lot of calls for my consulting, and need unlimited calling. Unlimited calling on the big players is way too much money, over $100 a month. With Virgin or Simple Mobile, it is $40-55/month, with internet. I am on Wifi all day, so I don’t use much data except when traveling. I can afford a top notch phone on a national carrier, I just don’t want to pay that kind of money just to get the latest and greatest. Same goes for importing a Galaxy Nexsus on Simple Mobile. I don’t want to pay $620 retail for my phone, with no support because I imported it from abroad.

Please bring this phone to the US, with Sprint or T-mobile bands, so I can use Boost, Virgin or Simple Mobile with it. I want an inexpensive dual core and better screen phone for under $200.

There is some demand, yes. It is tiny however, in the grand scheme of things. Tiny markets aren’t what they generally go for. This will likely do much better in areas where contracts do not rule, as is the case in the US. I would bet something like 80%+ of smartphone users in US are on contract.

No US carrier will allow this phone. A phone with those specs, which in my opinion are pretty good, for only 199 WITHOUT a contract would open the gate for carriers to lose their hold on price fixing.

The only reason phones cost 700 off contract is because of the carriers and their contracts. Without them the free open market would work, competition would be at play, and high end phones including Galaxy Nexus and iPhone 4S would be 300 off contract.

Affordable mainstream non-contract phones are a carriers worst nightmare, and since the carrier and manufacturers are in a joint price fixing scheme, we will never see something like this in the states.

Hopefully this will be the start of a new generation of phones with better/bigger screens and decent specs for the pre-paid market. Right now the carriers want there to be a big gap between pre-paid and post-paid. This could change all that.

With this ZTE and nVidia have a chance of delivering the final nails to the WP coffin.

WP is currently not competitive in *any* price category. The hardware is old, the phones are expensive and even with all the Android royalties flowing to MS direction, Android phones are cheaper and with faster hardware in all price categories.

defo, it will replace the orange san-fran (zte Blaze for £90) at the top of the entry level pay’n’go, list, all it needs is the dev support the san-fran has.

by 2013 phones will be where pc’s are today, hardware far exceeding the software, so we wont really be chasing spec’s any more. im still rolling an 3 year old i7 920, and i can see a good few years in it jet, may be 5. basically a mid level pc that will handle anything and everything.

This would be an excellent prepaid phone to use. Of course anyone who breaks their contract phone (assuming their network runs HSPA+) could pick up a really nice back up phone on the cheap compared to other smartphones!

Dont be fooled by the cheapo pricetag from ZTE phones. I bought one recently and can only say that to call it junk would be an insult to junk everywhere. Power failures, complete system failure and fundamental operational problems with the version of android they’re running. They look good on paper but let the buyer beware.